This invention relates to shielded electrical connectors for mounting in a vertical position on a circuit board and in particular to Din connectors comprising a dielectric housing containing electrical terminals, which may for example be either receptacle terminals or plug terminals and at least an outer shield for the housing. Since such a connector is fixedly mounted to the circuit board, the problem arises of angularly orienting the housing with respect to the outer shield, before the connector is mounted to the board, in order to ensure that the terminals are correctly oriented for mating with those of the mating connector. Since the housing is usually provided with polarizing keying means, such means must also be properly angularly oriented so as to be compatible with those of the mating connector.
There are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,611,878 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,637,669, shielded electrical connectors having circular cross section dielectric housings having axially extending cavities in which electrical terminals are secured and being surrounded by an outer metal shield, the housing being constructed for mounting on the surface of a circuit board and the terminals having contact tails extending therefrom for connection to electrical circuitry on the board. In each case, however, the axis of the circular cross section housing extends parallel to the circuit board and the mating connector is attached to a flexible lead, and is, therefore, not fixedly mounted, so that the angular orientation problem mentioned above, does not arise.